Three Poems
Janice D. Soderling
Journey of the Saracens​
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Christ set out on a rubber raft for Greece,
looking for a place to lay his head.
His father Yusuf said, “We come in peace.”
“We come for peace,” his mother Rasha said.
And Christ said nothing, smiled his knowing smile
for he had sailed a desert ship before.
Their sea-swamped vessel swayed mile after mile.
“We seek a refuge,” said they. “Nothing more.”
Wild Herod, as you know, kills sons of men.
The raft was crammed with babes both aft and fore.
And Rasha nursed her brown-eyed Saracen.
And Yusuf kept a look-out for the shore.
Through wintry lands they walked their weary walk
and begged for shelter for a little while.
Amid the festive songs and Christmas talk,
sweet Christ said nothing, smiled his knowing smile.
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Waves
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In single file at dawn,
they walked down to the water.
Some with fear. All with hope
that luck would soon be better.
Kyrie eleison,
no seaworthy freighter.
They left and now are gone.
See how the blue waves glitter.
None could swim. They’re desert folk.
Plain and simple slaughter.
You cannot see where they went down.
All you see is water.
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Mare Nostrum
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It is the ghost ship Hope-No-More
that sails a bitter sea.
Stiff on her misty deck there stands
a doleful company.
Her sails are spun of baby breath.
Her masts are made of bones.
Her draft is deep, but deeper still
the halls of Davy Jones.
Her keel is carved of hard good-byes.
Her rigging wrought of grief.
Her rotting hull is empty as
the honor of a thief.
She sailed from war and hunger.
War and hunger are no more.
She drifts like fog forever,
the good ship Hope-No-More.
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Janice’s notes: ​​“‘Journey of the Saracens’ was first published at New Verse News; ‘Waves’ at Quill and Parchment. All three poems are included in my collection War: Make that City Desolate.
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“Looking back at my records, I see that the origins of ‘Mare Nostrum’ were discussed in Backstory #162, curated by Chris Rice Cooper. This blog is dedicated to authors telling the
origin and making of individual poems.
“Quoting from that interview:
’Usually, not always, I analyze the finished poem to see what I’ve done. And one revelation I had during this scrutiny was that this poem has the same meter and introduction (without my originally being aware of it) as a sea poem which I memorized as a child, “The Wreck of the Hesperus” by Longfellow, which begins, “It was the schooner Hesperus / That sailed a wintry sea; / and the skipper had taken his little daughter / to bear him company.” When I came to realize this, I was in a quandary about whether or not to keep it as written. Longfellow probably chose this meter, consciously or not, because it rises and falls like the waves of the sea. Moreover, the Hesperus poem is internalized in the minds of every American poet (at least older formalists and all serious craftsmen) and its echo of tragedy at sea would do a great deal of work for me in mood creation. I have handwritten drafts showing that my initial first lines did not know where they were going.’
“I kept it and it was published at New Verse News just after two refugee tragedies hours apart on January 22, 2020. One boat, whose passengers included eight children, sank off the
Turkish coast; another went down off the Greek isle of Chios.
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“These poems, sadly, remain relevant today. In early December 2025, eighteen died when an inflatable raft sank south of Crete.”
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Janice D. Soderling has recent work at Eclectica, Orchards Poetry and the December issue of Well Met. Collections published in 2025 are The Women Come and Go, Talking (poems) and Our Lives Were Supposed to Be Different (short stories).
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Hop to…
Andrew l David l Gail l Janet l John l Martin l Mark l Mike l Melissa l Paul l Satyananda l Shamik l Steven l Susan l Word-Bird
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